A Half-Caster Support Class
Bard Reimagined
A stern human warrior bangs his sword rhythmically against his scale mail, setting the tempo for his war chant and exhorting his companions to bravery and heroism. The magic of his song fortifies and emboldens them.
Laughing as she tunes her cittern, a gnome weaves her subtle magic over the assembled nobles, ensuring that her companions’ words will be well received.
Whether scholar, skald, or scoundrel, a bard weaves magic through words and music to inspire allies, demoralize foes, manipulate minds, create illusions, and even heal wounds.
Music and Magic
In the worlds of D&D, words and music are not just vibrations of air, but vocalizations with power all their own. The bard is a master of song, speech, and the magic they contain. Bards say that the multiverse was spoken into existence, that the words of the gods gave it shape, and that echoes of these primordial Words of Creation still resound throughout the cosmos. The music of bards is an attempt to snatch and harness those echoes, subtly woven into their spells and powers.
The greatest strength of bards is their sheer versatility. Many bards prefer to stick to the sidelines in combat, using their magic to inspire their allies and hinder their foes from a distance. But bards are capable of defending themselves in melee if necessary, using their magic to bolster their swords and armor. Their spells lean toward charms and illusions rather than blatantly destructive spells. They have a wide-ranging knowledge of many subjects and a natural aptitude that lets them do almost anything well. Bards become masters of the talents they set their minds to perfecting, from musical performance to esoteric knowledge.
Learning from Experience
True bards are not common in the world. Not every minstrel singing in a tavern or jester cavorting in a royal court is a bard. Discovering the magic hidden in music requires hard study and some measure of natural talent that most troubadours and jongleurs lack. It can be hard to spot the difference between these performers and true bards, though. A bard’s life is spent wandering across the land gathering lore, telling stories, and living on the gratitude of audiences, much like any other entertainer. But a depth of knowledge, a level of musical skill, and a touch of magic set bards apart from their fellows.
Only rarely do bards settle in one place for long, and their natural desire to travel—to find new tales to tell, new skills to learn, and new discoveries beyond the horizon—makes an adventuring career a natural calling. Every adventure is an opportunity to learn, practice a variety of skills, enter long-forgotten tombs, discover lost works of magic, decipher old tomes, travel to strange places, or encounter exotic creatures. Bards love to accompany heroes to witness their deeds firsthand. A bard who can tell an awe-inspiring story from personal experience earns renown among other bards. Indeed, after telling so many stories about heroes accomplishing mighty deeds, many bards take these themes to heart and assume heroic roles themselves.
Creating a Bard
Bards thrive on stories, whether those stories are true or not. Your character’s background and motivations are not as important as the stories that he or she tells about them. Perhaps you had a secure and mundane childhood. There’s no good story to be told about that, so you might paint yourself as an orphan raised by a hag in a dismal swamp. Or your childhood might be worthy of a story. Some bards acquire their magical music through extraordinary means, including the inspiration of fey or other supernatural creatures.
Did you serve an apprenticeship, studying under a master, following the more experienced bard until you were ready to strike out on your own? Perhaps you were a young runaway or orphan, befriended by a wandering bard who became your mentor. Perhaps you stumbled into the clutches of a hag, making a bargain for a musical gift in addition to your life and freedom, but at what cost?
The Bard Reimagined
| Level | Proficiency Bonus | Features | Music Die | Cantrips Known | Spells Known | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | +2 | Bardic Music , Spellcasting | d4 | 3 | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 2nd | +2 | Allegro, Bardic Knowledge | d4 | 3 | 3 | 2 | — | — | — | — |
| 3rd | +2 | Bardic College, Bardic Music (Melodic Trance) | d4 | 3 | 4 | 3 | — | — | — | — |
| 4th | +2 | Ability Score Improvement | d4 | 3 | 5 | 3 | — | — | — | — |
| 5th | +3 | Bardic Music (Hymn of Renewal) | d4 | 4 | 6 | 4 | 2 | — | — | — |
| 6th | +3 | Bardic College feature | d4 | 4 | 7 | 4 | 2 | — | — | — |
| 7th | +3 | Bardic Music (Inspire Valor) | d6 | 4 | 8 | 4 | 3 | — | — | — |
| 8th | +3 | Ability Score Improvement | d6 | 4 | 9 | 4 | 3 | — | — | — |
| 9th | +4 | — | d6 | 5 | 10 | 4 | 3 | 2 | — | — |
| 10th | +4 | Improved Bardic Music | d6 | 5 | 11 | 4 | 3 | 3 | — | — |
| 11th | +4 | Magical Secrets | d6 | 5 | 12 | 4 | 3 | 3 | — | — |
| 12th | +4 | Ability Score Improvement | d6 | 5 | 13 | 4 | 3 | 3 | — | — |
| 13th | +5 | — | d8 | 5 | 14 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 1 | — |
| 14th | +5 | Bardic Music (Countersong) | d8 | 6 | 15 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 1 | — |
| 15th | +5 | Bardic College feature | d8 | 6 | 16 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 2 | — |
| 16th | +5 | Ability Score Improvement | d8 | 6 | 17 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 2 | — |
| 17th | +6 | Silver Tongue | d8 | 6 | 18 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 1 |
| 18th | +6 | Bardic College feature | d8 | 6 | 19 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 1 |
| 19th | +6 | Ability Score Improvement | d10 | 6 | 20 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 |
| 20th | +6 | Infinite Echoes | d10 | 6 | 20 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 |
Class Features
As a bard, you gain the following class features
Hit Points
- Hit Dice: 1d8 per bard level
- Hit Points at 1st Level: 8 + your Constitution modifier
- Hit Points at Higher Levels: 1d8 (or 5) + your Constitution modifier per bard level after 1st
Proficiencies
- Armor: Light armor
- Weapons: Simple weapons, hand crossbows, longswords, rapiers, shortswords
- Tools: Three musical instruments of your choice
- Saving Throws: Dexterity, Charisma
- Skills: Choose any three
Equipment
You start with the following equipment, in addition to the equipment granted by your background:
- (a) a rapier, (b) a longsword, or (c) any simple weapon
- (a) a diplomat’s pack or (b) an entertainer’s pack
- (a) a lute or (b) any other musical instrument
- Leather armor and a dagger
Quick Build
You can make a bard quickly by following these suggestions. First, Charisma should be your highest ability score, followed by Dexterity. Second, choose the entertainer background. Third, choose the dancing lights, friends and vicious mockery cantrips. Finally, take the rapier, entertainer's pack and lute. At 2nd level, learn the detect magic, healing word and thunderwave 1st-level spells.
Spellcasting
You have learned to untangle and reshape the fabric of reality in harmony with your wishes and music. Your spells are part of your vast repertoire, magic that you can tune to different situations.
Cantrips
You know three cantrips of your choice from the bard spell list. You learn additional bard cantrips of your choice at higher levels, as shown in the Cantrips Known column of the Bard table.
Spell Slots
The Bard table shows how many spell slots you have to cast your bard spells of 1st level and higher. To cast one of these spells, you must expend a slot of the spell's level or higher. You regain all expended spell slots when you finish a long rest.
Spells Known of 1st Level and Higher
You initially do not know any leveled spells when you gain this feature at 1st level. You gain two 1st-level spells of your choice from the bard spell list at 2nd level
The Spells Known column of the Bard table shows when you learn leveled bard spells of your choice. Each of these spells must be of a level for which you have spell slots, as shown on the table. For instance, when you reach 5th level in this class, you can learn one new spell of 1st or 2nd level.
Additionally, when you gain a level in this class, you can choose one of the bard spells you know and replace it with another spell from the bard spell list, which also must be of a level for which you have spell slots.
Whenever you reach a level in this class that grants the Ability Score Improvement feature, you can replace one cantrip you learned from this class's Spellcasting feature with another cantrip from the bard spell list.
Spellcasting Ability
Charisma is your spellcasting ability for your bard spells. Your magic comes from the heart and soul you pour into the performance of your music or oration. You use your Charisma whenever a spell refers to your spellcasting ability. In addition, you use your Charisma modifier when setting the saving throw DC for a bard spell you cast and when making an attack roll with one.
Spell Save DC
Spell attack modifier
Ritual Casting
You can cast any bard spell you know as a ritual if that spell has the ritual tag.
Spellcasting Focus
You can use a musical instrument (found in chapter 5), or an arcane focus, as a spellcasting focus for your bard spells.
Bardic Music
You can inspire others through stirring words or music. To do so, you use an action on your turn begin an auditory performance for your allies, choosing one bardic song to perform from your musical portfolio. This performance has a radius of 90 ft, and the maximum number of creatures that can be affected by it is equal to 1 + your Charisma modifier (minimum 1). You can choose yourself to be one of the creatures affected by your bardic song.
Whenever a creature enters the radius of this performance, if the maximum number of creatures are not being affected by this feature at that time, you can choose to immediately apply the effect of this feature to that creature. A creature must be able to hear you to gain the benefits of this feature.
Bardic music requires concentration, as though on a spell, and it is music, or, at the very least, oratory; you must continue to speak, sing, or play, as appropriate, to sustain the effect. This doesn't take an action but might interfere with verbal or somatic casting, depending on the situation. A bardic song lasts for up to 1 minute, unless otherwise stated.
If a bardic song requires creatures to make a saving throw, use your spell save DC to determine the DC of that saving throw. If a bardic song requires a music die, the size of the music die is listed in the bard class table.
You can use this feature a number of times equal to 1 + half your proficiency bonus before completing a long rest. When you reach the 10th level, you regain all uses after a short or long rest, and you have advantage on concentration checks you make while you are performing a bardic song.
Inspire Competence. When you gain the Bardic Music feature at 1st level, this is the one of the first bardic songs that you add to your portfolio. While performing this bardic song, you grant your allies focus and clarity when making skill checks. When you begin playing, select a tool, skill or vehicle. As long as you continue to play, any affected creature adds one roll of your music die to any check they attempt that would use that tool, skill or vehicle. You can maintain this bardic song for up to one hour.
Encourage Failure. When you gain the Bardic Music feature at 1st level, this is the one of the first bardic songs that you add to your portfolio. This melancholic, moody song visibly disheartens those who hear it. The creatures you target with this song when you first start performing it are the only creatures that can be affected. While playing this song, affected creatures make their first attack roll, ability check or saving throw of each turn at disadvantage. This bardic song finishes at the end of your next turn.
Melodic Trance. Starting at 3rd level, you can play a hypnotic song that enraptures those who hear it. Any creature that you target with this ability must succeed on a Charisma saving throw or else be fascinated and utterly pacified by your magic. Creatures that fail the saving throw become charmed and stunned until the end of your next turn for as long as you continue to play; they cannot move or act, and are only dimly aware of their surroundings or anything other than your song.
While playing this melody, you cannot take other actions, or take any bonus actions or reactions. Creatures in combat with you or who perceive you as a threat have advantage on their saving throw, and if a creature stunned by this song suffers damage, the effect immediately ends.
Hymn of Renewal. Starting at 5th level, you may use your Bardic Music to invigorate and refresh your allies. When a friendly target affected by this song regains hit points, you may roll one music die and add it to the hit points gained. A creature does not need to be conscious for the performance to benefit from this effect; merely being in range and able to hear the song is sufficient.
If played during any part of a rest, this music affects any characters who roll any number of hit dice during that rest, adding one roll of the music die to the total hit points gained from the combined hit dice, and does not prevent the bard from gaining full benefit of the rest.
Inspire Valor. From 7th level onward, you may empower your allies in combat with relentless courage and strength. Any creature affected by this Bardic Music adds your music die to all weapon attack rolls, as well as any saving throws against effects that would inflict the charmed or frightened conditions.
Countersong. Beginning at 14th level, you may use your music to disrupt the flow of enemy magic, nullifying insidious whispers or words of power before they can affect your friends. While you concentrate on Countersong, you inhibit all hostile spells that rely on language, communication, or sound in a meaningful way (such as charm spells, Power Word spells, audible illusions, or any spell that requires anyone else aside from the caster to hear it, but not simply spells with a verbal component). Casters attempting to cast such spells must make an ability check with their spellcasting ability score against your spell save DC, or simply lose the spell, expending any resources as though it had been cast but generating no effect.
Allegro
Starting at 2nd level, you can take a bonus action on your turn, which you can use to take the Help action, or to allow a friendly creature of your choice (including yourself) to immediately move up to half its speed in a direction of its choosing. A creature must be within 90 feet and able to hear you to benefit from this feature.
Bardic Knowledge
A bard is a collector of stories, master of legends, and keeper of lore. Yes, you've read that book on rare herbs; yes, you've heard that old wives' tale about the moon; yes, you know the story of how Robiler killed the immortal ice dragon. Beginning at 2nd level, whenever you make an Intelligence ability check that would allow you to add a proficiency bonus, if you would not normally qualify to add any proficiency bonus, you add half your proficiency bonus.
Bardic College
At 3rd level, you delve into the advanced techniques of a bardic college of your choice. Your choice grants you features at 3rd level and again at 6th, 10th, 14th and 18th level.
Ability Score Improvement
When you reach 4th level, and again at 8th, 12th, 16th, and 19th level, you can increase one ability score of your choice by 2, or you can increase two ability scores of your choice by 1. As normal, you can't increase an ability score above 20 using this feature.
Magical Secrets
By 11th level, you have plundered magical knowledge from a wide spectrum of disciplines. Choose two spells from the bard, cleric, druid, sorcerer or wizard spell lists. A spell you choose must be of a level you can cast, as shown on the Bard table, or a cantrip. The spells do not have to be the same level or from the same class list.
The chosen spells count as bard spells for you and they do not count against your normal limit of spells known
Silver Tongue
At 17th level, you can cast the glibness spell by expending spell slots with a combined spell level equal to 8th or higher. Once you've used this feature, you can't use it again until you've finished a long rest.
Infinite Echoes
At level 20, your bardic music effects have unlimited targets, and their range is limited only by your targets' ability to hear your performance. Further, if your concentration is broken or dropped while concentrating on your bardic music, any effects of that bardic music you are maintaining ends at the end of your next turn, rather than immediately.
Bardic Colleges
The way of a bard is gregarious. Bards seek each other out to swap songs and stories, boast of their accomplishments, and share their knowledge. Bards form loose associations to facilitate their gatherings and preserve their traditions.
College of the Cantor
All bards have a knack for healing, and for strengthening their friends and allies with magic and song alike. To some bards, however, this is not a mere knack, but a calling. Usually dubbed cantors, these bards are often associated with temples and churches, or even charity organizations like the White Wheel, but some are self-taught wandering healers. What they all have in common is a restorative touch, a desire to help the hurting, and an inclination to solve conflicts with diplomacy, compromise and guile before resorting to aggression and bloodshed.
Bedside Manner
One of the most important aspects of treating the injured is convincing them to let you. You've mastered the art of projecting concern, empathy, trustworthiness, and respect (whether or not you actually feel any of it for any particular patient). Your Charisma checks always add your Music Die to the result, as do any ability checks made to improve the attitude of an injured creature. You also gain proficiency with herbalism kits, and the Medicine skill.
Somnolent Symphony
As a cantor, when you perform your Melodic Trance bardic song, you may use an action to force an affected creature to make a Wisdom saving throw or fall asleep, and remain so for at least a number of hours equal to your Charisma modifier (minimum 1) if left unmolested.
If a creature successfully saves against this feature, it is immune to further attempts during this song, but it is not freed from the trance, and using this ability does not interfere with your concentration on entrancing melody.
Nightingale Song
Starting at 6th level, the wounds and spirits of your allies are as easy for you to mend as the strings of a harp. You gain the following option for your Bardic Music feature:
Nightingale Song. When you target a willing ally with this song, it falls into a deep sleep which lasts as long as you play. A target that hears your song for at least one minute gains all the benefits of a short rest once the song ends, and adds your Charisma modifier as a bonus on any hit dice it rolls to recover hit points.
You may target yourself with this music, which does not put you to sleep, but does grant you all the benefits of a short rest except for the recovery of the Bardic Music use you activated it with.
Once a creature has benefited from this song, it cannot benefit from it again until it completes a long rest.
Inspire Greatness
Beginning at 15th level, when you use your Bardic Music feature to sing a Hymn of Renewal, you may add your music die to any saving throws attempted by its targets. It also grants affected creatures temporary hit points equal to your Charisma modifier at the end of each of your turns while your music lasts, which persist for 1 hour if not depleted.
Anthem of Liberation
Starting at 18th level, when you use an action to begin performing your Bardic Music, any affected friendly creature may immediately make a new saving throw against any ongoing spell, effect or condition that could be removed by a remove curse spell. The creature may add your music die to this new saving throw, ending the negative effect on a success.
College of the Minstrel
Given their role as welcome entertainers in any court, and their skill at enchanting everyone they meet, bards can be excellent at espionage. Court minstrels embrace this role full-time, mastering the arts of deception and secrecy and becoming fixtures of local politics. Some serve their lords as advisors, some spy on their supposed lords in service of other lords, and some serve other organizations entirely as they seek to manipulate politics for their own goals from behind the throne. All, however, are charming, canny, and dangerous.
Jack of All Trades
As a minstrel, you have dabbled in a little of everything in order to satisfy any cover story or noble whim. You may add half your proficiency bonus to any ability check that wouldn't ordinarily use your proficiency bonus, rather than merely those covered by Bardic Knowledge.
At 11th level, you can cast legend lore without spending a spell slot. Once you've used this ability, you can't use it again until you've finished a long rest.
Subtle Spellweaver
To properly cloak yourself in a veil of mystery and concealment, you have learned to do the same with your magic. When you cast a spell or create a magical effect with no readily visible effect, you may cast it with practiced subtlety, hiding any somatic or verbal components in a mask of innocuous gestures and words. When you cast the spell or create the magical effect with this feature, other creatures must make a contested check, using either Intelligence (Arcana) or Wisdom (Insight) as their ability check, against your Charisma (Performance). If you succeed the contested check, then that magic is perfectly concealed from that observer, they cannot realize that it has been cast at all except by observation of its results. Those affected by such an effect doen't automatically realize that they were ensorcelled once the spell wears off, even if the spell description would indicate otherwise (though they may still realize, if they’re sufficiently observant).
Song of Suggestion
Beginning at 6th level, when you perform your Melodic Trance bardic song, you may use an action to implant a suggestion in the mind of an enraptured creature. This may be a single idea, desire, or course of action, which must be phrased in such a way as to make it sound reasonable to the creature. Asking it to do anything obviously harmful automatically fails. Otherwise, the creature must make a Wisdom saving throw, and on a failure, once the trance ends, it will accept your suggestion as its own idea, and pursue it to the best of its ability. If it has not fulfilled the suggestion by the end of its next long rest, the impulse to do so fades from its mind, but it will not normally recognize the idea as alien regardless.
If a creature successfully saves against this feature, it is immune to further attempts during this song, but it is not freed from the trance, and using this ability does not interfere with your concentration on entrancing melody.
Beguiling Ballad
Beginning at 15th level, you may use your Bardic Music to obscure yourself and your allies, gaining the following option:
Beguiling Ballad. Creatures affected by this music may use a bonus action to become invisible. This invisibility lasts until the beginning of the creature's next turn, or until it makes an attack, skill check, or saving throw or casts a spell, whichever happens first.
Harmony of Shadows
Starting at 18th level, your mastery of the primal music has passed beyond the need to make audible sound, allowing you to play in registers higher, lower, or more astral or arcane than any living thing can hear. You can now ignore the verbal component of any of your spells by making a Charisma (Performance) check against 10 + the level of the spell slot you're using, and you may use any of your bardic class features completely silently (allowing you to affect even creatures who would not normally be able to hear you, where applicable). While this does allow you to operate within magical silence, it does not allow you to affect targets beyond the normal range of your music, were you to be making audible noise.
College of the Skald
Most bards avoid combat, preferring to talk or trick their way around obstacles. The skald, on the other hand, embraces it gladly, believing that the most true and powerful music is the clash of steel and the roaring of blood in a berserker's ears. Warrior-poets, tribal drum-masters, and fearless commanders who lead from the vanguard, skalds are bards who have mastered the art of war and weaponry alongside their music and magic, turning their force of personality into their allies' force of arms.
Front of the Chorus
When you choose this college, you gain proficiency with medium armor, shields, and all martial weapons. As long as you are wearing armor or have a shield equipped, you add your proficiency bonus to Concentration saves, and you can use your voice as a spellcasting focus by roaring a battlecry that is audible to a distance of 300 ft.
Ballad of A Thousand Blades
True masters of war music know a battle hymn for every occasion and can bring out tremendous force of arms and battle fervor in their allies. You can activate your Bardic Music feature as a bonus action. Once per turn, each friendly creature affected by your Bardic Music (other than yourself) may add your music die as thunder damage to a successful weapon attack roll.
Battle Magic
At 6th level, you have mastered the art of weaving spellcasting and weapon use into a single harmonious act. When you use your action to cast a bard spell, you can make one weapon attack as a bonus action.
Tenacity in Iron
At 14th level, you know how to react to dangers that require your immediate focus. Whenever you make a concentration check, you can use your reaction to make a melee weapon attack, or, if you fail that concentration check, you can cast a cantrip that has a casting time of one action or one bonus action.
Thundering Refrain
Starting at 15th level, when you make a successful weapon attack against a creature, you can use a bonus action to repeat your weapon damage against that creature as thunder damage.
Verse of Triumph
Beginning at 18th level, whenever you roll a critical hit, or a credible threat (any creature with a CR equal to half your level or higher) that you have damaged is reduced to 0 hp, you may use a reaction to shout a verse of triumph. You and any friendly creatures within 90 feet that can hear you may immediately take the Dash action in any direction of your choosing; affected creatures also add your music die to the damage of their next successful attack before the end of your next turn.
College of the Sublime Chord
Every bard makes use of the Primal Music, but to some bards, it is more than a tool – it is a purpose, a passion, even an obsession. For these bards, every note played is part of a lifelong quest to learn more about the Primal Music, to hear it more clearly, to understand it better, to grow that one note closer to the song that haunts their dreams. This fervent study has, as a side effect, the accumulation of tremendous magical power; a deeper harnessing of the Music itself brings with it a correspondingly greater ability to shape the living world.
Burdening Dirge
As a sublime chord bard, when you play your Melodic Trance bardic song, you may use an action to weaken and demoralize an affected creature. Select an ability score. Your target must make a Wisdom saving throw, and on a failure, any movement speeds it possesses are halved and any saving throws reliant on that ability score have disadvantage. These effects persist until the creature completes a long rest or is targeted by a remove curse effect.
If a creature successfully saves against this feature, it is immune to further attempts druing this song, but it is not freed from the trance, and using this ability does not interfere with your concentration on entrancing melody.
College of Sublime Chord Spell Slots
| Level | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | 6th | 7th | 8th | 9th |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3rd | 3 | 1 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 4th | 3 | 1 | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 5th | 4 | 2 | 1 | ─ | ─ | — | — | — | — |
| 6th | 4 | 2 | 1 | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 7th | 4 | 3 | 1 | 1 | — | — | — | — | — |
| 8th | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | — | — | — | — |
| 9rd | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | — | — | — | — |
| 10th | 4 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 1 | — | — | — | — |
| 11th | 4 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | — | — | — |
| 12rd | 4 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | — | — | — |
| 13th | 4 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | — | — |
| 14th | 4 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | — | — |
| 15rd | 4 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | — |
| 16th | 4 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | — |
| 17th | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 18rd | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 19th | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 20th | 4 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
Resounding Arcana
Once you choose this bardic college, you gain a special extra spell slot, which is exactly one level higher than your highest regular spell slot as seen on the Bard table. As your magical ability progresses, this special slot increases in level correspondingly, always remaining one level higher than the highest level spell slot on the Bard table. This spell slot is in all other ways completely normal; it can be used to cast any spell you have access to and recovers normally after a long rest. It is also considered your highest level spell slot when learning new bard spells.
This feature improves as you gain more bard levels, granting you an additional special slot two levels higher than indicated on the table at 7th level, which increases in level to remain always two levels higher; a third special slot at 11th level that always remains three levels higher; and a fourth special slot that always remains four levels higher at 15th level. The highest level spell slot this feature grants is always used when determining what spells you are able to learn.
Chord of Power
Starting at 6th level, you may use the bonus action granted to you by your Allegro feature to cast a spell with a casting time of 1 action or less. You may still only cast one leveled spell per turn, as normal.
Once you use this feature, you must complete a short or long rest in order to use it again.
Lesser Magical Secrets
At 6th level, select one spell from any class spell list that is of a level you can cast (including cantrips). You gain the ability to cast that spells as a bard spell, and it does not count against your normal limit of spells known.
Greater Magical Secrets
At 15th level, select two spells from any class spell list that are of a level you can cast (including cantrips). The spells do not have to be the same level or from the same class list. You gain the ability to cast these spells as bard spells, and they do not count against your normal limit of spells known.
Interwoven Song
Beginning at 18th level, you may weave additional themes into your bardic music. If you are already concentrating on a bardic music effect, and you cast a spell or use another ability that requires concentration, you do not lose concentration on your bardic music; instead, both effects are maintained by a single instance of concentration, and both are preserved or lost with the same saving throw, if you are forced to make one. This feature allows you to combine only two effects; attempting to add a third instance of concentration causes both existing effects to end, as normal.
New Spells
0th-Level Spells (Cantrips)
Lingering Lament
Enchantment cantrip
- Casting Time: 1 action
- Range: 60 feet
- Components: V, S
- Duration: Instantaneous
You create a note of deep sorrow that echoes briefly in the mind of a creature within range, making it sluggish and dispirited. If the target can hear you, it must make a Wisdom saving throw or take 1d4 psychic damage and suffer disadvantage on its next saving throw within 1 round.
At Higher Levels. This spell's damage increases by 1d4 when you reach 5th level, 11th level, and 17th level.
Singing Strike
Transmutation cantrip
- Casting Time: 1 action
- Range: Self
- Components: V, M (a weapon)
- Duration: Instantaneous
As part of the casting of this spell, make a single melee weapon attack. The magic weaves the natural motions of your attack into specific strikes and vibrations that generate notes and chords, which ring out loudly even over the chaos of battle. You may substitute your casting attribute for your Strength or Dexterity when making the attack roll, and add no attribute modifier to damage; however, you deal 1d6 bonus thunder damage from the cacophony.
If you are proficient with a musical instrument, you can cause this spell to make specific notes, and thus with enough successive castings, can recreate any song that you would be able to play with that instrument.
At Higher Levels. This spell's thunder damage increases by 1d6 when you reach 5th level, 11th level, and 17th level.
Staggering Note
Evocation cantrip
- Casting Time: 1 bonus action
- Range: Touch
- Components: V, M (a weapon)
- Duration: 1 round
When you cast this spell, target a specific weapon in your hand. Your next successful attack with that weapon while this spell lasts deals thunder damage instead of its normal damage type, and the target is immediately shoved 5 feet away from you.
At Higher Levels. At 11th level and above, this spell affects the next two sucessful weapon attacks you make while it is active, and can shove a target up to 10 feet per strike.
1st-Level Spells
Animated Instrument
1st level transmutation (ritual)
- Casting Time: 1 action
- Range: Touch
- Components: V, S, M (a working instrument)
- Duration: 1 hour
When you cast this spell, you touch an instrument that you are proficient with, and it rises gently to hover in the air at roughly the height it would be at were you to play it. For the duration of the spell, you can cause the instrument to play itself, exactly as though you were playing it. The instrument is directed by thought and does not require any action on your part, but you are still subject to distraction, and may suffer disadvantage on Performance or tool checks if you are otherwise occupied (for example, by pitched combat or a difficult negotiation).
At Higher Levels. If you cast this spell using a spell slot of 2nd level or higher, you can affect an additional instrument for each spell slot above 1st.
Chillsong
1st level evocation
- Casting Time: 1 action
- Range: Self
- Components: V, M (a small glass cube)
- Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute
You sing or play a melody woven with icy magic that freezes and slows creatures that hear it. Select two creatures within 90 feet that you can see and which can hear you clearly. At the beginning of each of its turns while the spell lasts, an affected creature must make a Constitution saving throw. On a failure, it takes 2d6 cold damage and its speed is halved until the beginning of its next turn.
Special. This spell counts as a bardic music effect for the purpose of traits and abilities that interact with that feature. If you have a bardic music die, you may substitute two of that die for the two d6.
At Higher Levels. If you cast this spell using a spell slot of 2nd level or higher, you can affect an additional target for each additional spell level.
Song of Serendipity
1st level enchantment
- Casting Time: 1 action
- Range: Self
- Components: V, S, M (a worn two-headed coin)
- Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute
You sing or play an upbeat tune that protects your allies from hexes and infuses them with good luck. Select two creatures within 90 feet that you can see and which can hear you clearly. While you concentrate on this spell, affected creatures ignore any effect that could be removed by remove curse, do not critically fail on a d20 roll of 1, and automatically succeed on death saving throws.
Special. This spell counts as a bardic music effect for the purpose of traits and abilities that interact with that feature.
At Higher Levels. If you cast this spell using a spell slot of 2nd level or higher, you can affect an additional target for each additional spell level.
Threnody for Grace
1st level enchantment
- Casting Time: 1 action
- Range: Self
- Components: V, M (a tiny gold or silver charm shaped like an instrument)
- Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute
You sing or play a jarring magical tune that upsets the balance and coordination of your enemies. Select two creatures that you can see and which can hear you clearly. While you concentrate on this spell, if an affected creature misses with a melee attack, it must make a Dexterity saving throw or immediately fall prone.
Special. This spell counts as a bardic music effect for the purpose of traits and abilities that interact with that feature.
At Higher Levels. If you cast this spell using a spell slot of 2nd level or higher, you can affect an additional target for each additional spell level.
Verbal Blades
1st level evocation
- Casting Time: 1 action
- Range: 60 feet
- Components: V, S
- Duration: Instantaneous
With this spell, you utter a string of violent invective infused with words of true power that strike the ego and body with equal force. Select a creature within range that can hear you (it does not need to be able to understand you), which must make a Constitution saving throw. On a failure, it takes 1d8 psychic damage and 1d8 magical slashing damage, and is pushed up to 15 feet in a direction of your choosing. With a successful save, it takes half as much damage and is not pushed.
This movement provokes opportunity attacks from any creature your target passes within reach of.
At Higher Levels. If you cast this spell using a spell slot of 2nd level or higher, the damage and the distance you can push your target increase by 1d8 psychic damage and 5 feet, respectively, per spell level.
2nd-Level Spells
Counterpoint Chorus
2nd level enchantment
Casting Time: 1 action Range: Self Components: V, M (a broken dagger) Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute
You sing or play a complicated composition of complimentary magical notes, which enables your allies to react to enemy mistakes with the same deft rhythm. When you cast this spell, select three allies that you can see and who can hear you clearly. While your concentration lasts, the affected creatures may make an opportunity attack against any enemy within reach that makes an attack roll and misses.
Special. This spell counts as a bardic music effect for the purpose of traits and abilities that interact with that feature.
At Higher Levels. If you cast this spell using a spell slot of 3rd level or higher, you may affect an additional ally per spell slot.
Echoing Roar
2nd level evocation
- Casting Time: 1 action
- Range: 90 feet
- Components: V, M (a broken dagger)
- Duration: Instantaneous
You bellow a spell of power that rings throughout the battlefield, its echoes continuing to bounce even after it is gone. Any hostile creature within range of the spell that is hidden or obscured must make a Constitution saving throw, taking 2d10 thunder damage on a failed save and half as much on a successful one. Any such creatures are also made completely visible, and neither they nor any other creature in the range of the spell can hide or benefit from obscurement until the end of your next turn.
At Higher Levels. If you cast this spell using a spell slot of 3rd level or higher, the damage and duration of the exposing echoes increase by 1d10 and one round respectively per slot level.
Thunder's Calling
2nd level abjuration
- Casting Time: 1 action
- Range: Self
- Components: V, M (a sprig from a tree struck by lightning)
- Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute
You sing or play a melody that snares your enemies with magical force. Select up to three creatures within 90 feet that you can see and which can hear you clearly. Each must make a Constitution saving throw at the beginning of each of its turns. On a failure, an affected creature takes 2d8 thunder damage and cannot move away from you until the beginning of its next turn. On a success, it takes half as much damage and can move normally.
Special. This spell counts as a bardic music effect for the purpose of traits and abilities that interact with that feature.
At Higher Levels. If you cast this spell using a spell slot of 4th level or higher, it deals an additional 1d8 damage and can affect an additional target for each additional spell level.
3rd-Level Spells
Anthem of Aggression
3rd level transmutation
- Casting Time: 1 action
- Range: Self
- Components: V, M (a broken tooth from the mouth of an enemy)
- Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute
You sing or play a melody that incites your allies with its driving beat, pushing them to such fervor that even their glancing blows are deadly. Select up to four creatures within 90 feet that you can see and which can hear you clearly. Whenever one of those creatures misses with a weapon attack, it deals damage equal to your casting attribute modifier to its target, of the same damage type as its weapon. A creature that can spend a resource to create an effect on a weapon hit can trigger that effect off one of these glancing blows.
Special. This spell counts as a bardic music effect for the purpose of traits and abilities that interact with that feature.
At Higher Levels. If you cast this spell using a spell slot of 4th level or higher, you can affect an additional target for each additional spell level.
Symphony of Discord
3rd level enchantment
- Casting Time: 1 action
- Range: Self
- Components: V, S, M (a pinch of ash from a burned harp)
- Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute
You sing or play a melody that bewilders and enrages your enemies, making it impossible for them to tell friend from foe. Select up to four creatures within 90 feet that you can see and which can hear you clearly. At the beginning of each of its turns, an affected creature must make a Wisdom saving throw, or believe that every creature it can perceive is its enemy until the beginning of its next turn. A creature is not forced to take any specific actions by this spell; it will prioritize targets normally and use whatever tactics seem appropriate to it.
Special. This spell counts as a bardic music effect for the purpose of traits and abilities that interact with that feature.
At Higher Levels. If you cast this spell using a spell slot of 4th level or higher, you can affect an additional target for each additional spell level.
4th-Level Spells
Haunting Tune
4th level necromancy
- Casting Time: 1 action
- Range: Self
- Components: V, M (a piece of fabric from a burial shroud)
- Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute
You sing or play a melody that instills paralyzing terror in your foes. Select five creatures within 90 feet that you can see and which can hear you clearly. At the beginning of each of its turns while the spell lasts, an affected creature must make a Wisdom saving throw. On a failure, it takes 4d6 psychic damage, has its speed reduced to zero, and is afraid of you until the beginning of its next turn. A creature can't be reduced below 1 hit point by this damage.
Special. This spell counts as a bardic music effect for the purpose of traits and abilities that interact with that feature. If you have a bardic music die, you may substitute that die for the d6.
At Higher Levels. If you cast this spell using a spell slot of 5th level or higher, you can affect an additional target for each additional spell level.
Revitalizing Incantation
4th level necromancy
- Casting Time: 1 action
- Range: Self
- Components: V, M (a phial of clear water)
- Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute
You sing or play a melody that renews and invigorates your allies. Select five creatures within 90 feet that you can see and which can hear you clearly. As long as the spell lasts, these creatures may use a bonus action on their turn to restore 3d6 hit points to themselves.
Special. This spell counts as a bardic music effect for the purpose of traits and abilities that interact with that feature. If you have a bardic music die, you may substitute that die for the d6.
At Higher Levels. If you cast this spell using a spell slot of 5th level or higher, you can affect an additional target for each additional spell level.
5th-Level Spells
Cruel Lullaby
5th level enchantment
- Casting Time: 1 action
- Range: Self
- Components: V, M (a tiny hourglass)
- Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute
You sing or play an eerie tune that creates a paradoxical unease in those who hear it, causing restlessness and sharp despair in the mind even as it leadens the limbs with a numb and weary fatigue. Select up to six creatures within 90 feet that you can see and which can hear you clearly. At the beginning of each of its turns while the spell lasts, an affected creature must make a Wisdom saving throw, taking 4d8 psychic damage on a failure and half as much on a success.
If a creature fails three saves before the spell ends, it falls into a deep sleep haunted by painful nightmares, and must continue to make saves against psychic damage each turn even if this spell ends, until three successful saves are made, causing the nightmare to end and the sleep to become normal. While the nightmare persists, normal methods for waking a sleeper, such as damage or being shaken by an ally, only allow the sleeper to make a new saving throw; on a failure, it does not awaken, and psychic damage does not offer a new save at all.
Special. This spell counts as a bardic music effect for the purpose of traits and abilities that interact with that feature.
Rhyme of the Elements
5th level evocation
- Casting Time: 1 action
- Range: Self
- Components: V, S
- Duration: Concentration, up to 1 minute
You sing or play a wild ode to the raging storm. While you maintain this spell, any ally within 90 feet of you benefits from an aura of elemental power that surrounds and infuses their weapons. When you cast this spell, select acid, cold, fire, lightning, or thunder; whenever an affected creature makes a successful weapon attack, it deals bonus damage of that type equal to your casting attribute modifier.
Special. If you have a bardic music die, you may choose to substitute that die for your attribute modifier upon casting. This spell counts as a bardic music effect for the purpose of traits and abilities that interact with that feature.